Diane I totally agree, Ferrone has ability and appeal as a narrator, just not in the romance genre, I’ve steered widely around the Feehan books he narrated, which is too bad as he did several of them.

I gave Fire and Ice an audio shot after Lea’s review, I had not connected with it when reading but the audio completely won me over. The narration was different for me in the beginning, I can’t quite define it beyond “a deliberate pacing” but with the first entrance of the Japanese accents I fell straight in. The characters, Reno in particular, came to life, I understood his motivations for being such an a$$ and Jilly’s fascination with him, and her battle against it. It was laugh out loud funny for me, repeatedly! Come on, after being bruised up in an accident, spending a night in the hospital and then seeing herself in a mirror the next morning; who can’t relate to Jilly, thinking her beloved might have seen her, then saying to herself … “It was a good thing it had only been a dream–she looked like a witch who’d met up with the wrong end of a broomstick”?

When the Joyce Bean copies showed up at Audible I went and checked and the Pfieffer copies were no longer available for purchase. But I can still access my original Pfieffer copies via my Audible library.

A little confusing but I’m always up for an upgrade in narrators and I like Joyce Bean.

Brenda: The only Krentz narration by her that I absolutely hated was Gift of Gold

Oh, lovely. Maybe I won’t notice whatever it was.

I’d definitely re-listen to Eclipse Bay. I even considered getting my own copy for future listens but Audible has only the abridged version. It’s probably just as well because I have enough wish list audios to use up about the next six months of credits. Now I want to listen to Pieffer’s version to see what the differences are.

I wonder why some books get recorded more than once. A rights transfer maybe? I think Cassandra said if they bought rights to existing audios they’d probably re-record with their own narrators.

Pieffer was Books On Tape’s go to girl with a lot of early Krentz work, some of her narrations I really liked, Wildest Hearts, Silver Linings to name a couple and some were a little flat like Eclipse Bay, worth listening to but not worth repeating. The only Krentz narration by her that I absolutely hated was Gift of Gold, You’ll have to tell me what you think when you listen. I could tell you what I didn’t like about it but I don’t want to prejudice you. In print I enjoyed Gift of Gold and Gift of Fire both..

I know I’ve listened to Trust Me, I remember narrations I HATE and the ones I LOVE. So it must have been in the just OK column. Then again I wasn’t nearly as picky at the time I glommed up all her audiobooks.

Leigh: Lea, you didn’t like the story or the narrator on What I Did for Love? I liked the story, so unless the voices are really bad, I should like it.

Leigh – I ended up liking the story line fine once I switched to print. Julia Gibson does not, IMHO, understand this romance, the characters, or SEP’s humor. Here’s the review I wrote for the 1/10 Speaking of Audiobooks column:

“Disappointment in more ways than one is the best description of my thoughts on the audio version of What I Did for Love. Susan Elizabeth Phillips has rarely failed to thoroughly entertain me but I didn’t perceive all that much magic between Georgie and Bram and greatly missed her customary laughs. After finding myself actually a bit irritated while listening, I finally gave up at the halfway point on narrator Julia Gibson and started reading the print version I had on hand. By reading rather than listening, I was able to salvage some enjoyment and suddenly found myself wanting to finish a book I was barely tolerating in audio. Ms. Gibson’s interpretation of the characters was far from my own and I noticed a few of the gem type moments this author is known for float by unnoticed since the needed emphasis was lacking. The modulation of the characters voices continually resembled one another in a sort of spaced out manner that reminded more of Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure than varied adult characters. Yes, a definite disappointment.”